I've been watching this thread for a few months now while my district has been going through the interviews and the transition to POWER. So, now that my store is fully power and has been for a while I would like to give my 0.02 and I have joined the site just for this purpose.
I hear others asking how will this provide better customer service when this happens or that happens. The fact is, power was created for the average patient. Anyone with special requests falls outside the norm and will require certain measures. For example, the patient who wants the white lisinopril or the sealed bottle of Tylenol 3, will need to be filled at the store level. Patients who do not want the new central fill bottles or bags must be repackaged when they get to our store. It's not perfect, but I would gladly take the bad with the good.... most of the time. During the busiest times of the day, when we really need power to work, it doesn't. I still get several doctor/copy/patient calls daily that could have been handled at the care center. They have 9 minutes to send us the label and some patients end up waiting longer than the promised 15 minutes (not 45 minutes or more as stated in an earlier post) before they say anything. And if the insurance rejects, it takes way too long to get resolution (especially for silly things like an incorrect days supply). Honestly, as a new pharmacist, I missed ringing my patients up. When I got licensed I was quickly transferred so I didn't know anyone. There are patients whose names I have seen on a daily basis for over a year now that I am just getting the opportunity to meet. I am so happy to finally get to introduce myself to many of these people.
I have 3 complaints about power. First, it is definitely more work that my previous system required. I am constantly on the run now and there are times that I am not able to leave to even get a bathroom break. Add to that the flu shots we are doing now and I might have to start wearing depends. I also would love to know where they found the people to work at the call center. I get more complaints from patients regarding those than anything else. I don't think any of them have ever worked a day in a store. I had a patient the other day who was told that because her insurance was rejecting, we would not fill her rx until she got to the store! My third complaint is my biggest - I can not override the central facility under any circumstance. I have 3 examples of times when I should have had that ability (all happened within a 24-hour period of each other). First, we took a script and filed it and it was never filled. The man comes back the next day and I tell him he is going to have to wait 15 minutes - for a z-pack. Second, I have a lady come in with 2 rx's for her sister who is in the car. Her sister has just had oral surgery and is in the car screaming in pain. Sorry - it's going to be 15 minutes. Last, a family with a small child in the back seat who has uncontrollable vomiting comes through my drive-thru (kid puking in the back seat) with a rx for Zofran ODT. Again - it's going to be 15 minutes - but in that case, I did go ahead and give them 1 tablet while they waited. A few months ago, I would have all of these meds filled in less than 5 minutes.
As far as the people who have said that it might increase errors (or the person who said there was one mistake that would have caused on OD for a child) that's actually how power is working. I counsel all my new scripts now and I have caught mistakes that might have reached the patient under the old system. We all make mistakes, but I think Power is built to reduce the chances of errors.
Another interesting point is that we thought people would hate the new bagging system. I have actually had many people tell me that they love the new bags and that there is one rx per bag. Mostly, people are just glad that we aren't using staples like crazy anymore. And for those people who predicted we would lose customers - we were up 4% over last year and I have done many more transfers in than transfers out lately.
I am still a little nervous about the cuts that might be coming, but all things considered I think Walgreens is on the right track with power.
